Then B.C. Lottery Corp. CEO Michael Graydon speaks at a news conference about a proposed casino at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver in March 2011. The casino was approved late last year, and Graydon left shortly thereafter to work for the joint venture running the casino and resort, taking a $125,000 B.C. Lottery severance package on the way out.

VICTORIA — When Finance Minister Mike de Jong released a critical report on his B.C. Liberal colleague Amrik Virk last month, he offered a two-word characterization of the findings.

“Troubling,” he told reporters. “Unacceptable.”

Virk, as a member of the board of Kwantlen Polytechnic University back in 2012, had aided and abetted a scheme to circumvent full reporting of executive salaries to the central agency that maintains government compensation guidelines.

“I understand that boards, generally populated by people on a volunteer basis, want to attract the very best people possible,” observed de Jong. “But we have guidelines that relate to both the amounts that are allowed to be paid and to how those amounts must be disclosed. Those requirements weren’t met. That’s not satisfactory.”

Embarrassing, too, because Virk is now the minister for advanced education and hence the cabinet member in charge of ensuring that universities and colleges show the proper respect for government policies and guidelines.

Did de Jong see any problem with his colleague continuing in that role, in light of the bad example he set as a member of the Kwantlen board?

“No,” replied the finance minister. “Because — I’ll tell you why. I have spoken with Minister Virk and I think it is fair to say that he understands in a very specific way that the requirements around disclosure weren’t met. That’s not acceptable ... I am certain that when you speak with him, Minister Virk will confirm he has a similar stance on the matter.”

De Jong’s assurances notwithstanding, Virk initially expressed only vague contrition (“it’s a humbling experience”) while minimizing the offence: “While reporting did occur ... that reporting was not fulsome and wasn’t in sufficient detail.”

Not until the day after the report came out did he apologize: “I’m incredibly sorry that I didn’t do better as a board member. I should have sought out more information to ensure that the best reporting requirements were done. I can only deeply regret that.”

Meanwhile, de Jong announced plans to tighten guidelines for executive compensation: “I am also going to be writing directly to all of the institutions to ensure that they fully appreciate the level of importance that the government and I attach to their compliance, not just with the technical requirements of disclosure rules, but also the spirit of those disclosure rules.”

A course in Disclosure 101, he called it. Perhaps board members will appreciate the irony of being put through re-education camp while their minister, Virk, was let off the hook for his documented disrespect of the guidelines.

I thought back to the consequence-free handling of the Virk case this week when the Liberals released the report on the departure of CEO Michael Graydon from B.C. Lottery Corporation.

Once again, you had a damning report from the Ministry of Finance. Graydon had violated conflict guidelines by entering into discussions about a new job with a private company in the gambling industry and he violated disclosure guidelines by not telling the corporate board for two months.

Once again, there was de Jong, offering reporters his characterization of the findings.

“Well, they’re troubling to the extent that they reveal a very senior official conducted himself at the time he was in charge of a Crown corporation in a manner that was both inconsistent and fell short of the standards that one would expect,” the finance minister told reporters.

“It’s also clear from the report that the exit procedures that were in place at the B.C. Lottery Corporation were not sufficient ... There were procedures and requirements in place that from the report weren’t followed, and that, too, isn’t acceptable.”

Troubling. Not acceptable. The minister appeared to be singing from the same song sheet, or perhaps thumbing to the same pages in the thesaurus.

Then, fresh from another chorus of “nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen,” de Jong proceeded to minimize the failure of the government appointees on the board of the B.C. Lottery Corporation.

Given the findings about how Graydon had conducted himself, why had the board agreed to a separation package valued at $125,000?

“It probably has something to do with what the board would have known at the time they made their decision,” replied de Jong.

Board chairman Bud Smith was not long in substantiating that excuse.

“The decisions we made as a board were based on the information that we received largely from Graydon at the time of his resignation . ... and that information was not complete,” he told Rob Shaw of The Vancouver Sun. “Had I known then what I know today ... the results would have been different.”

Meanwhile, de Jong told reporters that he would again be firing up the ministry word processor: “You will soon receive a copy of the letter that I am sending to the lottery corporation and to all Crown agencies making clear my expectations that ... the requirement for post-employment restrictions, similar to what exists in the public sector and the public sector standards of conduct, be fully integrated into their individual policy guidelines.”

That sound you hear is the minister closing the barn door after yet another escape without retribution. Troubling, one might say. Unacceptable, even.

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